Bio Category: 2526 countryside echoes

BRIAN BIGLEY

Brian Bigley comes from a musical family on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio where he first heard the ethereal sound of the Uilleann Pipes at the West Side Irish American Club. Soon after, at the age of eight, he began studying with Achill Island piper Michael Kilbane. Since then, Brian’s sensitivity to the art of Uilleann Piping has developed into a high level of understanding with the help of his family and the countless musicians that have crossed his path.

His interest in maintaining that ethereal sound led Brian to study the art of pipe making with the prolific pipe maker Seth Gallagher in New York and the master flute maker Patrick Olwell in Virginia. He is currently making pipes in the style of the late Dave Williams and has a waiting list.

Brian is also a world-class Irish step dancer. Studying with Bob Masterson and Catherine Leneghan from age seven, he went on to compete with distinction at the World Championships in Glasgow and Killarney.

He has toured extensively throughout North America and Europe as a piper, flute player, whistle player, and dancer with various music and dance shows including “Tomáseen Foley’s A Celtic Christmas” (www.ACelticChristmas.com) which has appeared at the Medina Performing Arts Center in Medina, Ohio multiple times. He was a guest artist with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra (www.cyorcherstra.org) in Cleveland where they performed “Symphonic Led Zeppelin” at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2002) and the Masonic Auditorium (2007). He has also had the privilege of performing at Carnegie Hall in New York with the Chieftains as well as appearing on stage with legendary piper Paddy Keenan. The fall of 2007 included a tour with Orange County Irish rock band “The Fenians” as well as appearing at the Milwaukee Irish Fest with the Trinity Irish Dancers. In March of 2016, Brian was a featured dancer and musician with The Omaha Symphony’s production of “Celtic Journey” (www.celticjourney.org), a symphonic presentation of traditional Irish music, dance, and storytelling.

Competitive accolades include taking first prize for senior piping at the Midwest Regional Fleadh Cheoil and taking second place at the Fleadh in Drogheda, Ireland in 2019.

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ALAN CHOO

Violinist Alan Choo, whose performances have been described by The Straits Times Singapore as “an intoxicating brew of poetry and dare-devilry,” appears on the global stage as a leading soloist, chamber musician and historical specialist. He made his solo debut with Apollo’s Fire at the Tanglewood and Ravinia Music Festivals in 2017, and currently serves as Concertmaster and Associate Artistic Director for the ensemble. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of Red Dot Baroque, Singapore’s first professional period ensemble and Ensemble-in-Residence at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. In May 2019, he was invited as guest concertmaster and soloist with the Shanghai-based baroque ensemble, Shanghai Camerata. He has also appeared as a soloist with the FVG Orchestra (Italy), St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers and more.

Alan is the recipient of the Early Music Award 2016 from Peabody Conservatory, the Paul Abisheganaden Grant for Artistic Excellence 2015, the Goh Soon Tioe Centenary Award 2014, the Grace Clagett Ranney Prize in Chamber Music 2014 and 1st prize in the National Piano and Violin Competition 2011, Artist Category. He has also given masterclasses and lectures in violin performance, performance practice and stage presence to college students at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Michigan State University, Baldwin-Wallace College, Bowling Green State University, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.

Alan holds a Doctorate in Historical Performance from Case Western Reserve University, as well as degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory. His teachers include Julie Andrijeski, Risa Browder, Victor Danchenko and Alexander Souptel. His solo debut album with Apollo’s Fire, the complete Mystery Sonatas of Heinrich Biber, was released on AVIE Records in 2024 and debuted at #2 on the Billboard Classical chart.

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CAITLIN HEDGE

Violist, violinist, and folk musician based in Youngstown, Ohio, Caitlin Hedge serves as Principal Viola of Opera Western Reserve and the Warren Philharmonic, and performs with the Youngstown Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Butler County Symphony, Ashland Symphony, and Mansfield Symphony. She has performed with Celtic Woman, Evanescence, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and has won several awards for her fiddle playing, including first place in the 2013 Edinboro Scottish Highland Games Regional Competition. Her locally-based Greek blues/Americana group, Demos Papadimas and His Band, have recorded three studio albums together and were featured artists on Canton Symphony Orchestra’s 2019 Divergent Sound Series. Ms. Hedge is an alum of Youngstown State University and Baldwin Wallace University, and has served on faculty at YSU’s Dana School of Music and the Aurora School of Music. She is currently pursuing her MA in Historical Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University, studying baroque violin with Julie Andrijeski. She will release her debut album of original folk music in 2022.

SAM KREIDENWEIS

Baritone SAM KREIDENWEIS enjoys a diverse career as a soloist and ensemble musician across America and abroad. He regularly sings and records with Skylark Vocal Ensemble, True Concord Voices and Orchestra, Inversion Ensemble, and the Irish groups Anúna and M’ANAM. He is a founding member of The Leonids, a nine-part low-voice ensemble in Vancouver, BC, focusing on high-level chamber performance and development of students and aspiring singers. Sam has also performed with Conspirare, Cantus Vocal Ensemble, Kinnara Ensemble, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, and can be heard on the GRAMMY© Award-winning recording of Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil with the Phoenix Chorale and Kansas City Chorale.

Career highlights have included performing with Anuna at the Last Night of the BBC Proms, performing for the Japanese Royal Family in a revolutionary musical adaptation of the traditional Noh play, At the Hawk’s Well, and being part of the original cast and recording of Considering Matthew Shephard by Craig Hella Johnson with Austin-based Conspirare.

When not performing, Sam is a diversity, equity, and inclusion practitioner, using his love of mentoring and education to develop equitable and inclusive systems for corporations and nonprofits. A fierce advocate of the arts, Sam has previously served on the Board of Directors for Source Song Festival and the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus. He holds degrees in voice and opera theatre performance from the University of Dayton and Arizona State University.

ANNA O’CONNELL

Anna O’Connell is a soprano and harpist who works to recreate the lost traditions of the harpist troubadours. Her love of Celtic music was cemented by a visit to Ireland at a young age, where the fascinating mix of concerts (in a castle and in the streets of Dublin), monuments, and museums led her lifelong fascination with harps. She has researched the history of self-accompaniment with harps ranging from medieval to modern folk instruments. Her self-accompanied repertoire includes medieval, renaissance, and early baroque songs from Italy, Germany, and the British Isles. She is currently completing doctoral studies in Historical Performance Practice at Case Western Reserve University.

Anna has sung as soloist with the Hong Kong Early Music Society and the Maui Chamber Orchestra. In Cleveland, she sings with the Trinity Cathedral Chamber Singers and the Cleveland Chamber Choir. She holds degrees from the University of Southern California and Providence College. She studies voice with Ellen Hargis and Dina Kuznetsova, and historical harps with Maxine Eilander. Her Ithaca-based duo, Gothic Fire, specializes in Medieval and Renaissance music performed on rebec and harp.

RENÉ SCHIFFER

Cellist René Schiffer is praised for his “interpretive imagination and patrician command of the cello” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). He is a native of Holland where he was a protégé of Anner Bijlsma. He later studied baroque cello with Jaap ter Linden and viola da gamba with Catharina Meints. As a member of Sigiswald Kuijken’s La Petite Bande for sixteen years, he toured four continents and appeared many times on European television. He has also performed with the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre, and in over forty projects with Tafelmusik of Toronto. As a concerto soloist, he has appeared throughout North America and Europe, including such venues as the Royal Theatre of Madrid, and can be heard on acclaimed CD recordings of the Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos and the Tango Concerto for Two Gambas (his own composition) on British label AVIE. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the renowned baroque festivals of Utrecht and Bruges, as well as the Flanders Festival and Versailles. He can be heard on more than forty CD recordings, on the Harmonia Mundi, Philips, Virgin Classics, Erato, Sony, and AVIE labels. He serves on the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music as Teacher of Baroque Cello, and has given masterclasses and coachings for the New World Symphony (Miami), the University of Michigan, Oberlin Conservatory, and Cincinnati College-Conservatory.

WILLIAM SIMMS

William Simms is an active performer of early music. Equally adept on lute, theorbo and baroque guitar, he regularly performs with Apollo’s Fire, The Washington Bach Consort, Tempesta di Mare, Modern Musick, Ensemble Vermillian, Heartland Baroque and Three Notch’d Road. He has performed numerous operas, cantatas and oratorios with such ensembles as The Washington National Opera, The Cleveland Opera, Opera Lafayette, Opera Philadelphia and American Opera Theater. Venues include The National Cathedral, The Kennedy Center, The Kimmel Center for the performing arts and The Barns at Wolftrap. Summer festival performances include Tanglewood, Caramoor and Ravinia. He has toured and recorded with The Baltimore Consort and Apollo’s Fire. His recording with Ronn Mcfarlane, Two Lutes, was CD pick of the week on WETA in 2012. He has recorded for the Centaur, Sono Luminus and Eclectra labels. Mr. Simms received his Bachelor of Music from the College of Wooster in Ohio and his Master of Music from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. He is Instructor of Guitar at Mt. St. Mary’s University and Hood College, where he is founder and Director of the Hood College Early Music Ensemble.

“The U.S.A.’s hottest baroque band.” –CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE (UK)